IRON FIRE

Power Metal • Denmark

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Iron Fire is a Danish power and speed metal band which formed in 1995 under the name 'Misery'. The band soon changed their name to 'Decades of Darkness', then finally, to 'Iron Fire'. In 1998, they released their first demo, which was received extremely well, and they signed to Noise Records. Their debut album sounded a lot like common power metal bands, such as HammerFall, Helloween & Running Wild. What makes them different from other power metal bands is the vocalist, Martin Steene, who has a voice similar to Vince Neil (Mötley Crüe).

The year 2000 saw the release of Iron Fire's debut album, 'Thunderstorm' , which received rave reviews. The band's sophmore effort, 'On the Edge' (2001), was not viewed as the bands best work by critics. The band has never had a stable line-up, with multiple changes coming from 2001 - 2006. read more...

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IRON FIRE Reviews

Sometimes, even a long anticipated album will sneak up on you from out of nowhere. The latest case of this is Among the Dead, the eighth full length album by Danish power metal band Iron Fire. I loved their previous release, Voyage of the Damned and had been looking forward to a follow up for a long time, but aside from the occasional update, I knew little about the album (not even its final name) or when it was coming, so when I checked my promos one day and saw the release there, I was shocked and excited, to say the least. Better yet, as soon as I heard the album I was instantly satisfied, and it has only grown me more since then. While it doesn't quite match its predecessor for me, I'd still rank it ahead of all prior Iron Fire releases, and it's certainly a great example of how to modernize power metal in a way that actually works.

Iron Fire started out as a rather typical Euro power metal band, with releases like Thunderstorm and Revenge representing some great, mostly fast paced power metal with fun choruses and epic songwriting, and vocalist Martin Steene had a rather typical voice for the genre, except he sounded a bit more animated than usual at times. By the time their fifth album To the Grave was released, the band had mastered their classic sound and were at a point where they were consistently producing great album after great album. So it was a bit surprising that with their next album Metalmorphosized, they started adding in some modern elements, giving their music a bit of an edge and Martin started doing some death growls. That album was my introduction to the band and at the time I didn't like it much, but I've since realized that it was somewhat of a transitional album, moving away from their old sound and into something new. The band only evolved further with Voyage of the Damned, where their usual guitar dominated sound was somewhat dialed back to allow for the inclusion of keyboards, which managed to fit in well with the Sci-Fi concept of the album, and between that, a more extensive use of symphonic elements, and even a bit of prog, especially on the title track, it ended up being their most ambitious album to date and by far my favorite. Sadly, the album wasn't particularly well received, and so the band went through a bit of an overhaul, and have since returned as a three man band.

After Voyage of the Damned proved to be a rather divisive album, I was expecting some kind of return to the roots with Among the Dead, but suffice to say, that's not what what happened. While the new album lacks the experimentation found on the previous album, it's still very modern sounding compared to their first 5 albums, and it's also much rougher. In fact, this is by far the darkest and heaviest Iron Fire release to date. Which makes sense, as this time around the concept centers around the ever popular theme of a world being overrun by zombies. While not the most original concept, it's executed pretty well here, with a cool and rather entertaining voice over filled intro track, and the lyrics fit in well with the music. Getting back to the music, it's a much more aggressive sound than the band has had in the past, with the keyboards from Voyage removed completely, and now some of the riffs have a bit of a thrashy feel to them. If anything, the growls and metalcore screams from the previous two albums are even more prominent this time around. In fact, Martin's delivery all around is a lot rougher, with a much deeper and more gruff voice than he's displayed in the past. He remains the band's biggest asset, though, and shines throughout the album, as always.

One area where the band somewhat toned it down this time is the songwriting. Listeners won't find the kind of experimental tracks found on the previous two albums. Instead, most songs here are fast, furious and straight to the point. After that rather enjoyable intro, the title track kicks things off and right away the more aggressive, modern riffs are on full display, and the song charges ahead at a fast paced, with Martin mixing clean and harsh vocals effectively. The chorus is very good, and overall it's an excellent start to the album. Next is “Hammer of the Gods”, a slower track that still has a lot of energy to it, and again the riffs are very strong and the harsh vocals are used effectively. The rest of the album doesn't stray too far from these two tracks, though there are some amazing moments throughout.

My favorite song on the album is “Tornado of Sickness”, a very speedy track which has the best chorus on the album, and it's a very aggressive track with a ton of energy. Other highlights include the more melodic but still rough up tempo track “Higher Ground”, the fast but largely more melodic “Last Survivor”, which alternates between clean and harsh vocals in an awesome way during its chorus, “Iron Eagle”, where the guitar lead sounds like something from a classic Iron Maiden album, and “No Sign of Life”, which has the thrashiest riffs on the album, with even the chorus feeling like it would have fit well on an 80's thrash album. “Made to Suffer” is a very good fast paced song, while “Ghost from the Past” is a slower track and probably my least favorite on the album, but it's still fairly enjoyable, if not one of the band's more memorable efforts. One last song to mention is the closing track “When the Lights Go Out”, a nice ballad where Martin's vocals really shine. I usually don't like when albums end with a ballad, but this is a very well written track and after the intensity that precedes it, it feels like a nice way to end the album. Lastly, the band has included as a bonus track, a cover of the classic Metallica song “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, which fits their sound surprisingly well, and Martin's harsh vocals add a new element to the song that makes it a pretty interesting cover.

While I don't see Iron Fire ever making another album that's so in line with my musical tastes as Voyage of the Damned was, Among the Dead isn't too far behind and it's definitely a great, aggressive and more straight-forward release that demonstrates how a band can effectively add in modern elements to the genre and make it work. I can see it being another divisive release for the band, but I'd recommend that fans of their previous works at least give it a try, and I'd strongly recommend it to anyone looking for a power metal album with more of an edge to it, and especially to anyone who won't be scared off by all the harsh vocals.

Voyage of the Damned is a solid album by Danish power metal veterans Iron Fire. Seven albums into their career, any band which hasn't burned out has typically either refined their approach to a fine art or just resorted to phoning it in; curiously, Iron Fire seem to have done both, since what they've produced here is a decent rendition of their particular power metal formula with the occasional symphonic ambition but ends up feeling totally disposable due to how generic it is. It's a simple offering of the sort which lots of bands dabble in, but Iron Fire pull it off with a bit more consistency at least the average power metal act - plus I have to give them points for including a Warhammer 40,000-inspired bonus track in the form of Warmaster of Chaos.

Voyage of the Damned is the seventh album by Danish power metal act Iron Fire. The album was released in 2012. I’m going to confess straight up that while I’m not that familiar with the band to fully judge them what I have heard from them in the past has seemed listenable music, but nothing really remarkable to write home about. They’ve always seemed to tackle predictable themes in a predictable power metal way and have never stood out from the crowd for me.

Voyage of the Damned goes some way to change that, lyrically taking their listeners for a trip into space, and Iron Fire’s brand of power metal on the album additionally draws on traditional metal with symphonic and extreme metal influences, sometimes with very slight progressive leanings. Despite this Voyage of the Damned still has the unmistakable sound of European styled power metal, but Iron Fire attempts to further expand their sound through most notably use the growled vocals to go with Martin Steene’s clean singing voice. Steene is quite easily the best thing Iron Fire has ever had going for them, being a very good singer who doesn’t quite fit the whole typical power metal sound they’ve had going for them in the past. To be honest with a voice like that the growling isn’t really needed, but fortunately for Iron Fire the growls do mostly work in context of Voyage of the Damned, but this seems to be a trap that many power metal bands (and artists of other styles that don’t feature growls as a rule) are falling into. I can’t say I approve of band’s giving growling time of day when they don’t play a genre that demands it, like death metal, and especially when the singer is of high calibre. In this album’s case, there is death metal growling which works, but also some that sound closer to metalcore, which don’t so much.

What makes Voyage of the Damned noteworthy for me though is anything that previous made me think of Iron Fire as just another generic power metal act seems to have been sucked into a black hole, and although I don’t find myself with as high a regard for the album as I maybe could, I find myself nodding with approval all the same at the true power behind their riffs, the excellent and tasteful use of keyboards, which are anything but typical power metal cheese and of course Steene’s excellent vocals. Compositionally it is also pretty solid stuff. Iron Fire has really moved up in the world with this album. I could do without the moments of balladry parts, because the band shows their clear strengths to be in that classic Euro power metal sound and the first proper track after the intro, Enter Oblivion OJ-666, is no better example of Iron Fire being exceptional.

Although I can’t really consider it for the top tiers of ratings Iron Fire has left me impressed with Voyage of the Damned and pleasantly surprised. They really honed their craft and if they could just continue down this path they started to follow with this album then I think that they’ll be producing some of the best power metal going. Voyage of the Damned certainly has enough killer tracks like Enter Oblivion OJ-666, Taken, Ten Years in Space and Dreams Of The Dead Moon to suggest just that. Recommended album definitely.

European power metal has had the somewhat unfortunate reputation of being cheesy and poppy-happy, but that seems to be changing now with the emergence of European power metal acts that draw on heavier types of metal. One of these bands is the Copenhagen-based band Iron Fire (well, these guys are actually power metal veterans with several demos and albums under their belt), who, with "Voyage of the Damned", remind us that of the "power" that the term "power metal" includes.

The genre framework is unambiguously that of the aesthetics of power metal the big, epic overall sound of the album and the use of huge melodic choruses as well as the larger than life sci-fi-based subject matter of the lyrics. And, yes, there are keyboards and ballads on this album (just check the epic ballad 'The Final Odyssey' or the massively epic and symphonic title track). And these power metal elements themselves are not a problem at all. The problem to me is the way that many European power metal bands have cheesed up the genre. Fortunately, this is not something to worry about here, because there are hardly any cheesy moments on the album. Rather than being smearing in slushy cheese, the central power metal elements are neatly wrapped in thrashy guitars, groovy riffs, aggressive drums, occasional proggy shifts and odd time signatures, heavy doom-ladden passages and harsh growls and screams to supplement the already impressive – and expressive – clean vocals.

Iron Fire's brand of modern power metal, as presented on this release, not is not just the result of great songwriting but also top notch musicianship. These guys know what they are doing, and the overall performance is impeccable – from the guitar solos over the drum beats to the vocals. Drawing on genres such as melodeath, death metal, thrash metal and doom metal, Iron Fire have managed to create truly epic power metal, but, rather than going totally cheesy, they have manged to generate a dark and haunting feel – very fitting, considering that the darkness of outer space is a central theme of the album.

"Voyage of the Damned" is a slab of solid, dark and epic power metal. Totally free of Euro-power metal silliness, it is recommended to those who like their metal epic and powerful, but free from cheese.

"To the Grave" is the 5th full-length studio album by Danish power metal act Iron Fire. The album was released in January 2009 by Napalm Records. Lead vocalist/ main composer Martin Steene notes in the booklet that the band has seen a couple of lineup changes since the release of "Blade of Triumph (2007" as guitarist J.J. and drummer Jens B. have left Iron Fire. The band weren´t able to find a suitable replacement for J.J. in time for the recording of "To the Grave" and therefore all guitar parts on the album are recorded by Kirk Backarach (who also handles the keyboards). The did however have more luck recruiting a new drummer in Fritz Wagner.

The music on "To the Grave" is classic power metal/traditional heavy metal. Vers/chorus structured tracks, a pounding rythm section, melodic yet heavy guitars, a lead vocalist that delivers fantasy themed lyrics with conviction and some big anthemic choruses. Iron Fire deliver both fast paced tracks, mid-paced heavy tracks and slower epic ones. The opening trio of tracks pretty much tell the whole story of how the album sounds. "The Beast From the Blackness" represents the faster paced tracks, "Kill for Metal" the mid-paced heavier tracks and "The Demon Master" the more epic styled tracks (albeit still pounding and heavy).

The sound production is powerful and suits the music well.

"To the Grave" is basically power metal like our mother made it but I can´t help to feel that the music is pretty generic. It´s not like Iron Fire stand out among the thousands of other power metal acts out there or bring anything new to the genre. But you can´t take away from them that they deliver their music with passion, power and conviction. A 3 star rating is warranted.